Millions of Texans and Southwesterners have been touched over the years by the Light Crust Doughboys. From 1930 to 1952, fans faithfully tuned in to their early-morning and, later, noontime radio program, and turned out in droves to hear them play live. The Doughboys embodied the very essence of the golden era of radiolive performances and the dominance of programming by advertising agencies. Their radio program began as a way to sell Light Crust Flour. Their early impresario, W. Lee Pappy...

Winner of the 2022 Broadcast Education Association Book AwardOne of the first books to examine the status of broadcasting on its one hundredth anniversary, Radio’s Second Century investigates both vanguard and perennial topics relevant to radio’s past, present, and future. As the radio industry enters its second century of existence, it continues to be a dominant mass medium with almost total listenership saturation despite rapid technological advancements...

This "comprehensive and illuminating" biography of the Queen of Soul (USA Today) was hailed by Rolling Stone as "a remarkably complex portrait of Aretha Franklin's music and her tumultuous life."Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens and left them and her native Detroit for New York, where she st...

When jazz musicians get together, they often delight one another with stories about the great, or merely remarkable, players and singers they've worked with. One good story leads to another until someone says, "Somebody ought to wrie these down!" With Jazz Anecdotes, somebody finally has. Drawing on a rich verbal tradition, bassist and jazz writer Bill Crow has culled stories from a wide variety of sources, including interviews, biographies and a remarkable oral history collection, which r...

In the vein of the classic Johnny Cash: The Life, this groundbreaking work explores the wild life and extraordinary musical career of "the definitive country singer of the last half century" ( New York Times), who influenced, among others, Bob Dylan, Buck Owens, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks.In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive,...

The legendary good guys worthy of a spot in the pro wrestling hall of fameAt its core, professional wrestling has always been about the forces of evil trying to undermine everything good — and a red hot heel needs a valiant hero to battle against, someone fans can root for, identify with, and look up to.Wrestling heroes like Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, The Rock, and Andre the Giant are celebrated worldwide. In Heroes & Icons, Oliver and Johnson inclu...

When you put four pro wrestlers in a ring, you double the athleticism, mischief, and entertainment. That’s the equation behind The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams, the first comprehensive and historical look at wrestling’s tag team phenomenon.It contains hundreds of extensive interviews with well-known wrestlers, promoters, and managers — a who’s who of wrestling since the 1950s — to reveal tales of pain, measly payoffs, and a trade that was practised as much for love as ...

This popular question-and-answer book has been revised and updated to include the newest stars, latest songs, and most current statistics. Illustrated.

Walk the halls of the famous studio that produced hits for Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, and Booker T. and the MGs. Soulsville, U.S.A. provides the first history of the groundbreaking label along with compelling biographies of the promoters, producers, and performers who made and sold the music. Over 45 photos. Winner of the 1998 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award Winner of the ARSC Award for Best Research in Record Labels

"Blends storytelling with a vibrant, organic chronicle of [rock's] birth." — Pittsburgh Post-GazetteNPR's rock 'n' roll historian Ed Ward covers the first half of this music's history in this sweeping and definitive narrative—from the 1920s, when the music of rambling medicine shows mingled with the songs of vaudeville and minstrel acts to create the very early sounds of country and rhythm and blues, to the rise of the first independent re...

A few samples: 1) The father of Boston Celtics great Bill Russell didn't want money from his son, even though Bill was making good money as a star for the Boston Celtics. Whenever Bill wanted to give him money, he would say, "I got a job. I got my own d*mn money." Bill would then say, "But that's a terrible job. You work in a foundry. All your pants have holes in them from the sparks. There's dust and metal particles in the air. And you're by furnaces and then you go outside and it's freez...

Wrestling is as much a part of winter in Iowa as is snow and cold. Dreams of state championships begin in elementary school and, since 1972, come to fruitionor heartbreakingly fall shortat an arena in Des Moines in February or March. The tournament finals sell out, and individuals and teams carve their names on the sports history tree each year. Some champions were deaf, some were amputees, but all earn the respect of thousands for their work ethica hallmark of the states populace. Is this...